The Runners Four is Deerhoof’s double-LP concept album about friends banding together as honorable outlaws in a corrupt world, deciding what to save in an apocalypse, passing secret messages of warning and hope from a remade future back to a soon-to-be-destroyed present. Abundant with lyrical allusions to the flood, where cargo hold claustrophobia inside meets a watery chaos outside, it was written and self-produced by Satomi Matsuzaki, John Dieterich, Chris Cohen and Greg Saunier while they holed up in a rented Oakland rehearsal room for the winter months 2004-5.

“a heavy football, a no-half-stepping opus, a defining statement…The Runners Four should occasion a moment to notice how a little band has gotten its scale and balance right: producing strong and inexpensive-sounding records in its own studio, making converts through frequent touring, changing its sound every six months or so. It’s not easy, especially without becoming part of any movement…”
 - The New York Times

“Deerhoof…has succeeded at something that’s very hard to do: It has made records and built a devoted international following on the sheer power of its imagination. And it’s a mad, wild imagination...”
 - The Boston Globe

“Deerhoof has forged yet another delightfully odd pop gem, multifaceted and sparkling with creativity.”
 - Rolling Stone

“Deerhoof…makes the difficult wonderful.”
 - The New Yorker

“At first, The Runners Four is close to incomprehensible. Songs stop as soon as a hook seems to form; rhythms shift and cut like they’re running for their lives…but when the mystery lifts and the melodies finally stick—and they do—the album has the undeniable power of complete originality.”
 - TIME

The Runners Four was nominated for New Pantheon Award by Ric Ocasek and John McCrea.